


when you move im moved

by parker_kingofbees



Series: movement [2]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types
Genre: (oops), Asexual Frank Zhang, Fluff, Minor Jason Grace/Percy Jackson, Mortal AU, Other, Rated T for language, fluff and also more projection that is, nonbinary leo valdez, only fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-02
Updated: 2020-11-02
Packaged: 2021-03-08 23:49:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,042
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27341494
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/parker_kingofbees/pseuds/parker_kingofbees
Summary: leo's not salty that they haven't ever had a successful romantic relationship. or rather, they're trying not to be. just like they're trying not to be in love with frank zhang.pt 2 of my fanficall of you a verb in perfect view, though you dont necessarily need to read it to understand this fic
Relationships: Leo Valdez/Frank Zhang
Series: movement [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1996510
Comments: 7
Kudos: 30





	when you move im moved

**Author's Note:**

> this takes place 5 years after the main story (not the epilogue) of 'all of you a verb in perfect view'
> 
> if you havent read part one, all you really need to know is that frank and leo met in 11th grade because their english classes did a penpal project (frank's penpal was will, leo's penpal was annabeth).

Leo wasn't entirely sure what the big deal was about weddings. Woo, Percy and Jason were in love; everyone knew that, they'd been dating for five years. Now they were going to talk about how much they loved each other in front of all of their friends and family? How embarrassing.

If they ever got married, Leo would probably just ask their significant other if they could do a fast courtroom wedding. Skip all the planning and the cost and all that. Let the wedding money go towards their honeymoon, instead.

Of course, they'd need a significant other first.

That sounded very salty. Leo was not salty. They had bad luck in love, yeah. They spent the better part of high school hopelessly in love with Nico, which was a relationship that obviously would never happen. A good chunk of their freshman year of college, they were devoted to a girl who didn't even know they existed. And then there was their girlfriend sophomore year who broke up with them ten months ago. But they were patient. Their time would come. Hopefully.

An impatient tap on their shoulder jarred Leo out of their musings.

"You got the ring, right?" Nico was asking, rolling his eyes.

"Just as I said five minutes ago: yes," Leo said, turning their focus to an incredibly stressed looking Percy, dressed in his suit and his hand doing that weird clench/unclench thing it does when he’s really freaking out. "Shit, dude, I haven't seen you this stressed since senior finals."

"I had to graduate, of course I was stressed," Percy huffed, running a hand through his hair. "Oh, goddamnit! Sorry, Piper!"

Piper shook her head, looking mostly amused. "It's okay, Percy, you didn't fuck your hair up, so."

_ Operation: Distract Percy is failing miserably _ , Leo thought to themself as Grover rushed in with a glass of water.

"Hey, how the hell can you even afford this wedding," Leo asked suddenly.

"Jason's dad. We didn't even invite him, he just gave us the check or whatever, and we weren't gonna use it but then we remembered how fucking broke we are and we talked about it and then-"

Percy was talking a mile a minute and Rachel put a hand on his shoulder. "Perce. Bro. You gotta take deep breaths."

Now silent, Percy just nodded slowly and breathed deeply.

Leo pulled out their phone and opened their messages.

**leo v.: how goes it, chase?**

**Annabeth (tired): i love jason but hes fucking annoying**

**leo v.: percys the same way. youd think they werent a match made in motherfucking heaven**

**Annabeth (tired): you salty? you hung up on calypso again?**

**leo v.: nah, weve been broke up for almost a year now, im over her**

**leo v.: ok im a little salty but not bc calypso**

**leo v.: i just have shit luck and its hard not to blame my gender and thats frustrating**

**leo v.: like its hard to believe that someone will want to date me despite me being enby idk**

**Annabeth (tired): maybe you'll meet someone today???**

Leo stared at that last message until their phone timed out and turned off. The thought bounced around in their head for a moment, almost like a DVD screen saver, or whatever it was called, until they finally were jolted out of their thoughts by a knock on the door.

Frank poked his head in, and Leo's throat closed a little. They weren't ashamed to admit that they had definitely had a miniature crush on him back in junior year, just a quick one in between their ongoing Nico crush. They  _ were  _ ashamed to admit it was coming back again. Another unrequited crush in the midst of a tide of ill-fated crushes.

That isn't to say Frank wasn't a worthy person to crush on. He was very attractive, and the fact that he was much bigger than Leo certainly helped, because Leo wasn’t sure why but they really digged it. He was, from Leo's limited interactions, an extremely kind person, and he posted a lot of pictures of his various adopted cats on Instagram which was, in a word, adorable.

But, to Leo's knowledge, he was straight. Probably taken, too, with their luck.

Everybody began clearing out of the room and Leo jolted back to the present, catching up to Piper. "What's going on?" they muttered.

"Babe, you gotta pay more attention. We're taking places, the wedding's about to begin," she muttered back, looping her arm through theirs.

"Thanks, Pipes, you're a lifesaver."

After the ceremony ended, and everyone began to make their way to the reception, Leo found themself sitting next to none other than Frank Zhang himself.

Piper was there, too, with her queer platonic partner, and Nico and Will, too. A girl who they recognized from pictures as Hazel, sat at Nico's side, and Frank's grandmother sat between Frank and Hazel.

Dinner got served, and after a little, Frank turned to Leo and started making polite conversation.

"So, uh, how long have you and Piper been together?" Frank asked, and Leo began to choke on their wine.

"I'm sorry?" they spluttered as Piper absently pounded their back, not turning away from her partner.

"I, um, thought you guys weren't dating, but she called you babe and all that earlier, and-"

Leo laughed. "Oh, no. We're like siblings. Literally, actually. Her dad fostered me for most of high school. That's just how our friendship is."

"Ah, sorry," Frank said, looking a little sheepish.

"Don't be. We used to get it a lot, before  _ somebody _ " (they threw a playful glare at Piper, who was still engrossed in conversation with her QPP) "moved to Chicago."

"Oh, yeah, you go to school at… Rice, right?"

"Yup. I'm all the way in Houston." Again, they glared at Piper before turning and smiling at Frank.

"How do you like it there?" Frank asked.

"It's pretty good," Leo said, bobbing their head. "I lived near Houston years ago, before my mom- died. It's, uh... it's nice to be back. How about you? How do you like… D… avis..?"

It suddenly hit Leo that they had texted group chats with him, and was in that Discord server with him, and had game nights with him, but they hadn't talked to  _ him _ since junior year of high school, if even then.

Frank shrugged. "It's alright, I suppose. I mostly went there for convenience. I didn't want to follow Reyna, Annabeth, or Jason because I'd be stuck third wheeling, and I couldn't decide where to go, so I just chose to apply to a few UC's and I went with Davis because it has a pre-vet major. That isn't exactly a recipe for finding a location you love, but it worked well enough, I suppose. It kept me close to my American family and the parts of the country I was already used to.”

Leo nodded. “I mean, you gotta pick a place somehow. Why’d you stay in America instead of going back to Canada?”

“Mmm. I love Canada, and I’ll probably move back once I’m done getting my degree. Honestly, it would’ve been smarter to go home, I think, but… I don’t know. Something told me to stay in America a little longer,” Frank explained.

“Ah,” Leo said. “Have you been making friends at Davis? I mean, I suppose after three years you probably have, huh?”

“Eh, not anyone who I’d see being my best friend for the rest of my life. I have people I hang out with, people I study with. Nothing else, really,” Frank explained. “You?”

Sitting back, Leo shrugged very slightly. “About the same. Had a girlfriend for a little while, we broke up. I have some buddies who’ve been in my engineering classes each year, but we only really hang out in the shop, and sometimes on Fridays. Nobody else, to be honest.”

To Leo’s dismay, their conversation somewhat fizzled out at that, with Will trying to catch up with Frank and Piper roping Leo into some stupid debate.

But there wasn’t any finality in that conversation.

It felt less like the end and more like the beginning.

Leo wouldn’t consider themself a romantic. They weren’t one for anniversaries, because days were just days, and any day could be made special. They weren’t one for planning elaborate dates, because why spend money when they could have just as much fun at home or doing something much simpler? That was one of the reasons Calypso had broken up with them (they really weren’t salty, okay? It was almost a year ago!). She said she wasn’t feeling loved enough.

That ramble to say that Leo wasn’t a romantic, but their conversation with Frank felt like the start of their relationship, of perhaps their friendship (however much their pounding heart begged otherwise), instead of the end of their acquaintance.

The food all eaten and the music beginning, Leo settled down in preparation to watch other attendees dance. In their youth, perhaps they would’ve had the courage and energy to go out and dance stupidly and make their friends laugh, but in their admittedly still unripened age of 21, Leo held back, not quite as eager to make a jester out of themself.

Frank still was sitting next to Leo by the time most people were up and out of their seats, and Leo suddenly felt confident in their choices.

“You didn’t feel much like dancing?” he asked.

“No, I’m godawful at it,” Leo confessed. “You?”

“I’m the same way. I’ve got two left feet. My grandma always said so,” Frank replied, a half smile gracing his lips. Leo thought there was a chance they just might swoon. 

“I won’t believe it until I see it,” Leo rebutted.

“Okay, I’m not proving how awful a dancer I am at my cousin’s wedding. That sounds like an awful idea,” Frank said, crossing his arms.

Leo felt their face grow into a mildly mischievous grin. “So we just need to be alone for you to show me how you dance?” After the words left, they realized that it sounded… slightly suggestive. Which was certainly not Leo’s intention.

Frank’s face went red and he sank down slightly in his seat and crossed his arms. He mumbled something Leo couldn’t entirely hear, something like “I dont… well, I- I’m really not…”

“Sorry, what was that? Are you, Frank Zhang, turning away from a challenge? A dance off in the hallway of our hotel floor at three in the morning?”

“I dont… well, I- I’m really not…” (At least, that’s what Leo thought he mumbled)

“C’mon, Zhang. You in, or?”

“Ehhhhhhhhhh, fine,” Frank said at last, uncrossing his arms and straightening slightly. “But you should be going into this with your expectations on the floor, okay?”

“The bar is on the ground,” Leo promised.

Leo was sitting with their back to their hotel door at three in the morning, waiting for Frank to appear. They were musing about the wedding (which went well; of course it went well, they weren’t kidding when they said Jason and Percy were a match made in heaven) when finally, down the hall, a door opened, and Frank stepped out.

It was embarrassing, how fast Leo stood up. But they tried to play it cool still, stuffing their hands in their pockets and strolling down the hallway.

"Frank," they said, feigning a cool, indifferent voice. "Are you ready for the ultimate embarrassing dance off?"

Frank looked slightly uncomfortable. "I don't really want to wake anyone up, do I really have to?"

"No. Of course not, man, I was just kidding," Leo said. "I mean, I'll dance if you want to, but if you don't, it's no problem."

"Oh, okay." Frank gave a nervous chuckle. "Sorry."

"Don't be," Leo said. "No reason to be sorry."

"I mean, you stayed up late for this and it was just a waste of your time and now I'm not going to be able to sleep for a while all because I couldn't-"

"Hey, hey, hey, dude, slow down," Leo interrupted, holding their hands out and stepping towards Frank. There was only about a foot of space separating them. Leo had to tilt their head up to meet Frank's eye. "It's all good. My sleep schedule's shit anyways, 3 AM is the only time I can work on my projects in peace. Why won't you be able to sleep for a while?"

Frank was flushed red and he held himself stiffly, eyes shifting rapidly between Leo and anywhere but. "I just- can't really- sleep well when I wake up in the middle of the night."

"Aw, you woke up for this? I'm sorry, man!"

Leo could hear Frank take in a deep breath after he closed his eyes. "It's okay," he said, eyes still closed. "I don't mind. Not for you."

Leo's heart froze.

"What?" they asked, hardly above a whisper. Their stomach churned and chest clenched in that oddly pleasant way, the way it used to when Calypso smiled at them, or when Khione walked by with makeup on, or when Nico's Italian accent really shone through. And Leo knew they were really fucked.

Frank slowly opened his eyes and looked at Leo. He almost looked anguished. "I'm sorry, it's weird, and it's dumb…"

Leo's mind could think of a million and one ways this situation could play out. The ways Leo wanted it to play out. They dared to inch slightly closer.

"What is it?" they breathed out.

"I- when- um. When we all first met, back in eleventh grade, I." Frank swallowed. "I had a crush on you. Really big, really fast. It. Shit." Leo had never really heard Frank swear that much, and they blinked in surprise. "I thought I was over it. I told myself I was, and then at the wedding, you know, it all came back, and then I thought you were dating Piper and then-"

"Hey," Leo said again quietly. Frank stopped talking immediately, staring Leo in the eye, still anguished but also hopeful and scared. Leo's left hand reached out just slightly, and their fingers gently skimmed Frank's hand, and then their hands held each other's. "Y'know, I had a crush on you after that week. It came back too."

"Y- yeah?" Frank choked out.

"Yeah. I guess we're meant to be," Leo supposed with a grin. Then they sobered somewhat. "You really like me, though? Even though I'm nonbinary?"

Frank frowned and his eyebrows drew together. "What? No, not despite your gender. Your gender is part of you, and I like all of you."

"W- you do? Really?"

Calypso had never said anything like this to Leo. She never misgendered them, she never said anything that even implied that she wasn't supportive of their gender, but she never fully embraced it. This part of Leo that they always felt hindered their romantic relationships. They couldn't quite believe Frank's words.

Frank seemed to see this, because he dropped Leo's hand and instead used both of his to cup their face. He leaned forward, and down, until their foreheads met, leaving Leo staring up into his dark brown eyes.

"I like you, Leo. I like how passionate you are about your projects, and I like how frequently you post updates about Project Festus, and I like how smart and clever and funny you are. And I like how proud you are to be nonbinary. I liked how you looked in that skirt during that last dinner in eleventh grade, and I liked how you looked in your suit and makeup today. I don't like you because you're nonbinary, and I don't like you despite you being nonbinary. You are nonbinary, and I like you."

Leo thought they were about to cry, but then Frank impossibly softened even further, and his thumb swiped at their cheek, and they realized they already were.

"Do you like me even though I'm asexual?" he asked next.

"Of course," Leo choked out. "Yeah. I-" Their hands cupped Frank's elbow. "God, I don't think I can be as… eloquent but- fuck, man, I really like you. You're so sweet, and caring, and your cats are so cute-"

Frank gave a weak laugh at that one, and Leo felt somewhat reinvigorated.

"But you're even cuter," they added, feeling pleased when Frank's face reddened. "So yes, Frank, I like you. No 'in spite of's necessary."

"We're only here for a few more days," Frank whispered. "Then I go back to California."

"And I go to Texas," Leo finished unnecessarily. "But I graduate at the end of my winter term. That's only about a month away. And I'm sure I can find work as a mechanic out in Davis. Um, if that's what you want, that is."

Frank looked stunned. "W- y- you'd be willing to move out to California? I thought you liked Texas?"

"I do," Leo agreed, but they were smiling. "But I hear California's a lot more liberal, if a little stuck up. It'd be a good change for me, I think."

"Really?"

"Really. So… would you be willing to be my boyfriend?"

"More than willing," Frank promised, eyelids fluttering slightly. "It would be a privilege."

"You'd like me as a partner? Joyfriend? Datemate? Significant other?" Leo asked.

"I'd love you as my anything," Frank answered.

Oh. Leo was not expecting so tender an answer, and they were finding their own skin burning hot now. Frank still cupped their cheeks, so he must've felt their growing warmth, and he smiled even more widely.

By February of the next year, Leo was settled into the apartment they now shared with Frank. They loved their lazy days, lying on the couch, curled up tight next to their boyfriend, their cats all around and the T.V. screen playing some old rerun. They loved their hectic days, too, coming home after a long day at the shop and finding Frank cooked dinner or had brought home food, and being given a kiss on the cheek alongside their plate of food.

Yeab, sure, Percy and Jason were perfect for each other or whatever, but Leo could say with the certainty of an insider that they and Frank were much, much happier.

**Author's Note:**

> i gotta be honest i originally only shipped leo/frank as a crackship, but as time went on i fell in love with the actual ship. at the very least, its a lot less creepy than hazel/frank or hazel/leo considering hazel is significantly younger than both of them
> 
> also pleasepleaseplease know that this isnt calypso or caleo bashing at all. it sounds like it might be, but i just think that caleo is a precarious relationship at best, that it only really works in specific circumstances/universes, and this isnt one of them. and im not trying to make calypso sound secretly transphobic, im just using this fic to vent my frustrations as an enby.


End file.
